Residential Energy Conservation Subsidy Exclusion and Net Metering

[greenbean]

I am trying to figure out if the credits issued by a utility for net meetering would be excluded from your gross income under the Residential Energy Conservation Subsidy Exclusion. I am having trouble finding any more specifics about this program other than these 2 links. Nothing about net metering is specifically mentioned and the alternative energy methods elidgable are pretty ambiguous. Has anyone used this tax law before?


http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/i...S03F&re=1&ee=0

TaxAlmanac - Internal Revenue Code:Sec. 136. Energy conservation subsidies provided by public utilities

[paul]

from my understanding is that the energy companies do not pay you they just give you a credit on your account which you can use at a later date or actually donate to someone else or a school or something. i am not positive on this but i do not believe it is considered an income. i will see if i can find out more. on this island they dont give you anything they just say thank you. the electric and water company are owned by the govt so no big surprise. all excess they keep without a credit or anything else

[greenbean]

Hi Paul thanks for replying. Take a real close look at the writing before checking much further. This is actually a strange tax law. Unless I am reading it wrong it essentially says any subsidy or credit received from a utility can be deducted from your gross income figure on your taxes. Since net meetering is a credit from the utility I think it falls under that category but it does'nt specifically rule on net metering. So if you are credited 300 dollars over the tax year from a net meetering program your gross income would actually fall by 300 dollars.

It is also my understanding that net metered credits are not considered income but I don't think this tax law heads in that direction anyway.

Its almost as if someone thought it was going to be taxed so they made a law to give you relief from it as income, yet it is not income